socialism

This is Part II of Kokkino’s statement after the June elections in Greece, revised and slightly abridged from the version published in International Viewpoint. Kokkino is a revolutionary socialist organization in Greece, which has been in the throes of a major debt crisis since 2009.

Kokkino is part of the broader Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), which is the main force against the austerity measures being imposed on Greece by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a condition of a proposed bailout. SYRIZA’s anti-bailout stance resulted in a dramatic growth in its popular support in the run-up to the recent elections – from just under 5% of electoral votes in May to 27% in June.

Part I of this statement offers an analysis of the election’s political outcome. The final sections, reprinted here, focus on strategic questions for the radical left in Greece. Although the context is quite different, there is much to be learned from the experience of major social mobilization in Greece since the eruption of the debt crisis. – New Socialist

Alan Sears’s “Notes Towards a Socialism for the Times” is a very good article to get people interested in socialism, or to reinvigorate the passion of those already knowledgeable on the topic. It strives to explain what socialism from below is, how it fell by the wayside and why we need it back.

This is the third in a series of letters by one of the editors of NS Webzine. The first two are here and here.

Dear A,

You asked me if the people who publish this webzine are Trotskyists. Speaking only for myself here, I don’t consider myself a Trotskyist. I think the best of Trotskyism can contribute to the kind of socialist politics that’s needed today, but that we need to go beyond Trotskyism. Let me try to explain.

We reproduce this recent essay by the French radical philosopher Alain Badiou because of its thoughts about the times in which we’re living and about the “communist hypothesis,” which are not just relevant to people in France. As always, signed articles on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or publisher (in particular, New Socialist does not share Badiou’s belief that the USSR, Mao’s China and similar societies were socialist) -NS